For a change from the red and green color standards for the Christmas dinner table, try a silver and gold holiday table instead this year. Read more at www.cookingquarters.wordpress.com

For those who agree that chocolate is its own food group, you’ll be happy to know that chocolate figures prominently in both of these bread recipes from www.thekneadforbread.com. Read more at www.cookingquarters.wordpress.com

At at time when cost cutting is so important, what would make more sense than for furniture stores to switch out their many showroom lamps from incandescent bulbs to compact fluourescent bulbs (CFLs). In prior posts, I suggested this was a great way not only to save energy costs, but to help consumers to get used to the idea of CFLs in their homes… so I was thrilled to see that Raymour & Flanigan, a large furniture retailer in the northeast has done it! The company recently switched out all its showroom lighting (83 stores in 7 states) to CFLs.

CFLs use one quarter of the energy of incandescent bulbs (15-watt CFL=60-watt incandescent) and have a life span of 10 years. And with  furniture and lighting showrooms using more wattage than any business I can think of, this spells significant savings in energy costs. Plus furniture retailers can help spread the energy saving message to consumers (hopefully sales associate at Raymore Flanigan stores will be pointing them out!).